


To Protect

by sweatercladpumpkin



Series: A TMNT Drabble for Every Occasion [1]
Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: (but not really), Blood, Gen, Nightmares, Raph is a good big bro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-07-02 14:17:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15798261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweatercladpumpkin/pseuds/sweatercladpumpkin
Summary: Raphael was not the definition of a morning person, let alone an extremely early morning person. However, he will always be there when his family needs him.





	To Protect

**Author's Note:**

> This is another fic that I had wrote about 4 years ago and apparently never got around to editing it and publishing. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

He hesitated at the closed door of his older brother’s bedroom. Michelangelo knew he was getting too old for this. He was sixteen-years-old for Pete’s sake. He couldn’t just run to the safety of his brother’s (or fathers) arms after every nightmare, like he had done when he was only a little turtle tot.

However, tonight’s was more graphic than usual, and the image of the unseeing, lifeless eyes of his older brother could not be shaken from his mind. As a result, Mikey found himself here, both out of necessity to check on his brother’s safety and hoping that maybe he could bunk with him for the night, lest he be alone with his overactive imagination.

Strengthening his resolve, Mikey pushed open the door and walked into the room. The sounds of Raphael’s snores reached his ears, instantly relieving his worries.

Now that he was sure that his brother was alright, Mikey wondered whether or not it was worth waking his brother up. Given that it was Raph, Mikey was sure that he would be less than pleased at being woken up in the middle of the night because of a stupid nightmare. Maybe he could just sneak out now and head back to his room and try to get a few more hours sleep despite the possibility of the nightmare coming back.

As Mikey pondered over staying or leaving, he didn’t notice the room had gone quiet. He was startled by the sounds of his brother stirring. Normally Raph was a pretty sound sleeper and no amount of noise woke him once he was deeply asleep. However, someone’s presence usually alerted him awake. It was mainly a ninja thing seeing as all of them did it to some degree. Leonardo’s and Splinter’s senses were the most sensitive but Mikey reasoned that down to the fact that Splinter was a super ninja (and being a rat, had more sensitive hearing) and that Leo was just Leo.

“What? Who….Mike? Man what time is it?”

Silence once again fell on the room as Raph propped himself on his elbow to blearily look at the red glow of his bedside clock.

“The hell Mike it’s like three in the morning.” Raph groaned sleepily, falling back with a thud onto his back.

Michelangelo wrung his hands together, “Sorry bro, I just uh…”

“What? Mikey what happened?” Raph ground out, tiredly. He still hadn’t moved from his position on the bed, however his body language indicated that he was more alert than when he first woke.

“Just a bad dream bro, nothing major, just thought I would…?”

“Would what, Mike?”

“Uh you know what it was just a stupid dream.” Mikey turned to leave the room, “I’ll just go back to bed so I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Mikey cut the crap and tell me what happened!” Raphael had propped himself onto his elbow as he stared down his youngest brother, “I can tell that whatever was in this dream of yours was bad enough for you to come here and if that’s no clue for why you’re here then your shaking is definitely giving it away.” Raph said nodding his head at Mikey’s hands.

Mikey looked to his hands and noticed that they were shaking, just as Raph had said. Sighing deeply in resignation he made his way to lay next to Raph on the bed.

Raph shuffled over to make space and they both lay shoulder to shoulder for a long minute as Raph allowed Mikey to get a hold of his thoughts. Mikey had been prone to nightmares since they were very little and would often have a hard time afterwards trying to get his thoughts straight in order to explain them. Raph knew this and waited.

“There was so much blood.” Mikey began. “We were fighting the foot. I was down. My chucks were across the roof from me so I couldn’t reach them. The foot elite showed up, one was heading straight for me. I tried to get to my chucks…I tried so hard but I couldn’t move. H-he was still heading for me. I looked for you guys but I looked over and Leo and Donnie were down… I think they were alive. I-I’m not sure. And then you were suddenly in front of me and then there was blood and you…you collapsed right in front of me. I turned you over and…”

“And what, Mikey?” Raph asked softly, though he already knew what was coming next.

“And you were dead.” Mikey whispered brokenly. “You were looking straight through me and you weren’t responding cause you were dead. You died to protect me.”

A small sob escaped from the youngest turtle and Raphael gathered his little brother in his arms. Raph knew that there was no way to truly comfort Mikey. Being brought up learning the ways of Ninjitsu and leading lives as vigilantes in New York meant that there was a real possibility of the events of Mikey’s dreams coming true. The near misses that they had in the past re-enforced this fact. The reality was that they all knew the risks. They all knew that one day, one or more members of their small unique family may not make it home.

Raph held onto Mikey long after he stopped crying, and his little brothers breathing became soft and even. As sleep once again came to claim him, he repositioned himself to wrap his arm over his sleeping brother’s torso, hoping that the weight was enough to protect his younger brother from his own fears.


End file.
